Harping on about hudud

“When asked whether hudud law would [have been] implemented if Pakatan Rakyat had taken over the governement on 16 Sept, Husam gave an assurance that it would have been. When asked if he would push for hudud law if he became the Umno Youth chief, Khairy smilingly replied that he would…”

REPORTED in The Star, 21 Dec 2008, on a forum titled Malaysian Political Reformation, held at Balai Islam in Lundang, Kuala Terengganu on 20 Dec 2008. The forum was moderated by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia associate professor Mohd Agus Yusof. Among the topics it touched on was the implementation of an Islamic penal code.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Rembau Khairy Jamaluddin put PAS vice-president Datuk Husam Musa into a corner by asking if the opposition coalition would have gone ahead to implement hudud if they had succeeded in taking over the federal government on 16 Sept 2008.

But Khairy, who is Umno Youth deputy, was in turn put on the spot by the moderator when he was posed with a similar question. His answer elicited shouts from PAS supporters in the hall.

In the days that followed, the matter began to spiral out of control as the DAP came out strongly against PAS’s stand on hudud implementation. The various Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties also jumped on the issue, which they claimed showed cracks within the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

After a long silence, Parti Keadilan Rakyat de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim finally commented on 7 Jan 2009, saying his party would not reject outright PAS’s plan to implement hudud. He also said there was no need to reject the proposal as it was only applicable to Muslims.

“Hudud is not something new. There is allocation for it in Islam. This is what PAS has been saying all along, that it is solely for the Muslims.”

— Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Source: The Star, 8 Jan 2009. Interestingly, nobody has taken Khairy to task for also supporting the implementation of hudud; not even the BN component party of the MCA, which has been telling non-Muslim voters in Kuala Teregganu that voting for the PAS candidate means supporting hudud.

Additionally, not everyone in PAS thinks along the same lines when it comes to the party’s Islamic state agenda.

“We (PAS) experienced quite a resounding victory in 1999. Then we lost the plot. Some of us convinced ourselves that everyone loved our Islamic state agenda, and forgot that the support we got was because of the uprising of the rakyat and their quest for justice for Anwar and all.

“But, having lost the plot, we went on to intensify our Islamic agenda and launched our ‘Islamic State Document’ to the detest of many, including our new well-wishers. Then, in the 2004 elections, we got a bloody nose.”

— Dr Dzulkefli Ahmad

Source: The Nut Graph, 25 Aug 2008. PAS central working committee member Dr Dzulkefli Ahmad was speaking about the implication of being a true Islamic state on the sidelines of the PAS 54th muktamar during the weekend of 16 and 17 Aug 2008.